Mumbling unhappily in the corner of my mind, I continue to walk around those god damned ruins. I didn't even encounter a single monster nor a person, which means nobody will even give me fucking directions.
The ruins were not large. No, that would be like saying an ant is comparable to a mountain. These ruins are fucking colossal. Furthermore, it's always the same scenery. Stone, stone and stone. Oh, also stone.
After 5 hours of what felt like walking through hell, I finally encountered a strange drawing on the floor.
Countless runes littered said floor, and upon further inspection I realized that it was a teleportation formation, but it didn't specify a target.
In the game, these formations were almost everywhere players gathered. Cities, dungeons, training zones... hell, there even were portable formations.
But, this formation was... strange? It looked about right, but it was missing something. Every formation has the shape of a circle with the name of the destination at the center, but this one didn't have said name. It was just empty.
Now, option 1: Go in the circle and teleport somewhere. Maybe down to hell.
Option 2: Don't use the thingie and continue walking around aimlessly.
Option 3: Destroy everything and find a way through brutalizing the ruins.
Option 1 is certainly a good idea whilst option 2 is more... eh.
Option 3? Fuck yeah.
I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a smart person, just someone who wants to get results. That's even the reason why I focused on vitality so much, exactly in order to survive every situation.
Countless strings begin to extend from my fingers. At first, I felt a bit weird since this is after all, reality, not a game. But, after a couple minutes of experimenting, I realize the feeling is the same exact one as in the game. They're like mini-extensions of myself, and I can control them just like how I control my arms.
Thus, I slam those string into the ceiling, creating a shockwave much stronger then what you would expect to originate from some almost-invisible strings. The ceiling itself breaks down and the rest of the room threatens to do the same, but I pull myself up with the strings as if using a grappling hook.
Up there is just another room, so I destroy the next ceiling. And again. And again.
After a dozen or so floors, I finally arrive at the top. Looking around, I realize I'm in some sort of forest, and the ruins are barely standing. Quickly jumping down from the place and running away.
5 minutes afterwards, I return back to the ruins with a blank face and sit down on a comfy-looking rock. 10 minutes later, I scream out in rage "I'm fucking lost!!"
Where the hell is the protagonist's cheat where they just so randomly happend to pass by a princess or something!? Huffing and puffing, I cool down my overheated anger by caressing my newfound extremety.
I giggle creepely whilst poking at my tail. Although I didn't put much thought into it before, it's actually a very useful limb to have. It not only helps with balance, but it also helps calm my mood. Two birds for one stone. Furthermore, my hearing has shot up by leaps and bounds with my cat-like ears.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
And so, I unconsciously relax and begin to think deeper about what to do in the future. I read my share of novels too, from reincarnation to transmigration. Although I admit I never thought it would actually happend to me, I admit the idea is... thrilling.
The power to do whatever I want without disregarding others. The possibility to live a far more fullfilling life.
Once again I'll say this: I'm not smart. However, I'm not naive either. Knowledge is power, but ignorance is happiness. Even one of the game developers said this: "This is not a game for kids, even I sometimes have to seriously consider putting up restrictions."
What he meant was that the players were a bit... violent. People always solved everything with violence, this is true for both reality and not. Although rape was forbidden, players would torture others for information and there were even methods for forbidding players from logging out from the game. And this was the fucking 26th century!
Now, compare the advanced society with a primitive, medieval society. If the advanced was already violent, what about the primitive? If you have even a brain the size of at least a grain of sand, then you realize that it's pretty bad.
Whilst brooding internally about how bad life is, I heard a rustling sound not too far away from me. Perking up my ears, I remain still and silently cast an
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Race: Human
Total Level: 371
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I take in a sharp breath and hiss out enough curses for a lifetime. I stealthily deploy my string all over the area and after I'm sure I've got him in my trap, I send all of my string at him.
Trees are cut into pieces, bushes are pulverized by the force of the strings and the guy luckily didn't notice in time. He runs out of his hiding spot and tries to run away, but my strings catch him in time, binding his every limb.
Although I would like to kill him right here, I wanted information so I avoided cutting him into pieces.
Pulling the guy back towards me, I take a look at my captive.
Short black hair, deep blue eyes and a stature fitting of an athlete along with an admittevely handsome face. Yup, this guy is definetly a player. How do I know this? Intuition.
The guy was panicking a bit, so I bash his head against a nearby tree, snapping it in half. I then pull him back right in front of me and grind him down with my foot on his chest.
"Well well, what do we have here? A peeker, perhaps?" I say whilst rotating my foot that was pressed against his chest, causing him to grit his teeth in pain.
"Answer or I kill you, scream and I kill you, attack me and I kill you... You get the idea, do anything I don't like and I'll kill you." The guy nods with a pained expression, so I relax my grinding.
"Good. Are you a player as well?" The guy's eyes open wide and he barely manages to weakly say "...Yes"
"Excellent. We're making progress~! Now, how long have you been here and how did you get here?"
"I defeated a boss and got a strange token, which I activated, I think. I've been here for less then half a day... so could you please let me go? I didn't mean anything bad... Aaaah! Stop! That hurts!"
When he asks to be let go, I tighten the strings around his limbs. Internally debating the pros and cons of wether to let this idiot go or not, I internally sigh at how violent I've become in such a quick time.
Retracting my strings into my arms, I walk away and sit on a rock whilst keeping an eye on the guy. He gets up and rubs his aching limbs whilst whimpering in pain.
To sum up the following 6 hours, we essentially just talked about what happend and ideas. The guy was strangely outgoing even after almost being killed, but I didn't mind it too much.
I even apoligized for my aggressiveness, but he waved it off whilst calling it 'The stress of life', which admittevely made laugh a little bit.
At one point though, I got a bit... teasy... and asked "You're not trying to hit me, are you?" With a serious face. His expression went from confused to exxasperated, and he half-shouted "No way! I'm a girl!"
Silence reigned over us for several minutes. I pointed at his nether region and said "That's clearly a penis though."
We both broke out laughing after that, and I casually added "And I was a boy before."
(s?)he stopped laughing and had an expression that said 'seriously?'. Eventually though, we got it all settled down and agreed to at least help each other for a while.